Women Take a Seat

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Through debate and debris, a tug of war between red and blue, colorful daisies emerge from the political sheet of snow cast upon America. In the most recent November primaries, history was made not once, twice, or even three times, but with multiple wins in diversity. Alongside those elected, are the electors themselves, Florida reinstituted voting rights to those who had been once incarcerated, (over one million added votes!) “the biggest enfranchisement since…the Women’s Suffrage Movement,” said journalist German Lopez, a writer for The Vox. Yet most prominently, these legacy insurers are women of color, cultural diversity, and are within the LGBTQA+ community. This much needed sprucing in the U.S Government is not only a nice burst of color but an imperative integration of variance, mirroring the true faces of America.

Further north in New England, Massachusetts and Connecticut have elected their first African-American women into Congress. Ayanna Pressley is not only Massachusetts’ first African-American female governor, but she was initially the first African-American woman elected into the Boston City Council, an impressive political resume. Her fellow first-timer senate-mate, Jahana Hayes, is a political newcomer, previously a teacher, and won the 2016 National Teacher of the Year award. Over eight more women were the first ever elected in their states, and all are in good company with Pressley and Hayes.
Among these eight women, over half are women of color, deepening the mark that women have made over history. Amongst the Latino/Latinx community, Michelle Lujan Grisham (of New Mexico,) Veronica Escobar, and Sylvia Garcia (both from Texas) have set their stakes, and precedents, in the soil of American government. From Minnesota and Michigan, Iihan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the first Muslim women elected, Omar also being the first Somali-American legislator. Lastly are Deb Haaland of New Mexico and Sharice Davids of Kansas, both the first Native American congresswomen, and Davids being the first LGBTQA+ official of Kansas. Her counterpart is Jared Polis, the first openly gay governor elected in Colorado, the state once known for a highly publicized incident of a wedding cake being rejected to same-sex couples.

These women are only the start to the political medley, with even more diversification to come, each earning her place in American textbooks to come.